<< Overview of the main character sets in Firebird | Documentation | Glossary >>

InterBase^® character sets and collation orders

Support for Paradox and dBASE

Many character sets and their corresponding collations are provided to support Paradox for DOS, Paradox for Windows, dBASE for DOS, and dBASE for Windows.

Character Sets for DOS

The following character sets correspond to MS-DOS code pages, and should be used to specify character sets for InterBase^® databases that are accessed by Paradox for DOS and dBASE for DOS:

Character sets corresponding to DOS code pages

The names of collation orders for these character sets that are specific to Paradox begin "PDOX". For example, the DOS865 character set for DOS code page 865 supports a Paradox collation order for Norwegian and Danish called "PDOX_NORDAN4".

The names of collation orders for these character sets that are specific to dBASE begin "DB". For example, the DOS437 character set for DOS code page 437 supports a dBASE collation order for Spanish called "DB_ESP437".

For more information about DOS code pages, and Paradox and dBASE collation orders, see the appropriate Paradox and dBASE documentation and driver books.

Character sets for Microsoft Windows

There are five character sets that support Windows client applications, such as Paradox for Windows. These character sets are WIN1250, WIN1251, WIN1252, WIN1253, and WIN1254.

The names of collation orders for these character sets that are specific to Paradox for Windows begin "PXW". For example, the WIN1252 character set supports a Paradox for Windows collation order for Norwegian and Danish called "PXW_NORDAN4".

For more information about Windows character sets and Paradox for Windows collation orders, see the appropriate Paradox for Windows documentation and driver books.

Additional character sets and collations

Support for additional character sets and collation orders is constantly being added to InterBase^®. To see if additional character sets and collations are available for a newly created database, connect to the database with isql, then use the following set of queries to generate a list of available character sets and collations:

 SELECT RDB$CHARACTER_SET_NAME, RDB$CHARACTER_SET_ID
   FROM RDB$CHARACTER_SETS
   ORDER BY RDB$CHARACTER_SET_NAME;

 SELECT RDB$COLLATION_NAME, RDB$CHARACTER_SET_ID
   FROM RDB$COLLATIONS
   ORDER BY RDB$COLLATION_NAME;

Source: InterBase^® 2009 Language Reference Guide
Last updated 2010-02-23
See also:
Default character set
Character set
Character sets and Unicode in Firebird
Convert your Firebird applications to Unicode
Overview of the main character sets in Firebird
New character sets in Firebird 2.5
New character sets in Firebird 2.1
New character sets in Firebird 2.0

back to top of page
<< Overview of the main character sets in Firebird | Documentation | Glossary >>